Page 125 of Grim

“And you have been very bad, Kane,” Fate hisses. “Which is why …”

Before I can react, before I can reach out for Rue, the floor beneath my feet shifts. My wrists and hands are bound by invisible shackles. I feel the lock instantly, the helplessness of being caged inside my own skin.

“No!” Rue’s sharp voice cracks like lightning—wild, raw, and real. She rushes forward, her footsteps frantic against the floor.

I expect one of them to stop her, but they don’t. Maybe they want to watch me break.

Her small arms wrap around my neck before I can speak. She throws herself into me like gravity doesn’t matter, like there’s no dignity in distance. Like she couldn’t care less who sees her beg.

“Kane—K-Kane please,” she chokes, breathless and trembling. “Please, don’t let them take me. Don’t make me do this alone.”

I lean into her as far as my bonds will allow.Not nearly far enough.

She’s holding on like she thinks she can keep herselftethered to this world through me. Her fingers fist in the back of my collar, her face buried in my throat, tears searing my skin.

“You can do this, Rue. You are brave. You are strong. You are enough.”

“I’m not ready,” she whispers. “I can’t face this. Not alone. Not without you.”

The crack in her voice at the end splinters me.

My heart—the one I thought I buried centuries ago—shatters. Shards so sharp they carve regret through every piece of me.

I want to hold her. I want to press my hand to the back of her head and promise her she willneverbe alone. I want to tear the room down around us and challenge them all to stop me.

But this is no fantasy. This is no one’s fairy tale. My hands are bound and I cannot move.

“Mayday,” I say, the word rasping from me like blood through a wound, “I’m here. I will always behere.”

“No, you won’t,” Time snaps.

Fate sighs. “This has grown tiresome.”

“No!” Rue gasps again, louder this time, trying to twist her arms tighter around me, like she could make it permanent. “Please don’t let them take me.Please. I’m scared.”

“I know,” I whisper, hating myself more than I’ve ever hated anything. “Iknow. But you’re going to be so brave.”

“I don’t want to be brave,” she sobs. “I want more time.”

Our hopeless moment gets interrupted as Asher steps forward and the Sisters nod. The crowd watches in silence, their masks hiding whatever pity—or perverse interest—they might feel.

Asher does not speak; he simply reaches out.

“No,no—” Rue panics, trying to grip tighter. “Kane, don’t let go. Please don’t let go—”

“I’mnot,” I snarl, straining with everything I have. “I’m not letting go, Rue—”

But it doesn’t matter.

Asher touches her arm as a portal opens, and she’s gone, ripped from me like a scream swallowed by a void.

“Kane!” Her final cry echoes off the walls, guttural and aching.

Then silence.

And I stand in the center of a masquerade, chains around my wrists, heart bleeding into the hollow of my chest, with nothing but the ghost of her body clinging to me.

“D,” Time states after a pregnant pause, “take this philanderer away. He can wait out the rest of Rue’s time in your office.”